1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is computer systems supporting various communication protocols. Specifically, the present invention relates to a communication protocol event logging system for use with various protocols.
2. Background of the Invention
Computer systems, particularly small computer systems or personal computer systems, often support a number of external interfaces to peripheral devices or communication networks. Each of these external interfaces has a corresponding interface protocol that defines the control and data interchange between the host computer system and a destination peripheral device or networked data transceiver. The interface protocol also defines the manner by which communication events are handled by the particular interface. These interface events can include, for example, character input, character output, data block input, or data block output events.
One problem with prior art computer systems is that many different interface protocols may be supported by a wide variety of different computer system platforms. Because of this diversity, it is difficult to configure a computer system for general operation in an unknown communication environment. One prior art system attempting to address this problem is the Windows.TM. operating system developed by Microsoft.TM. Corporation of Redmond, Wash. The Windows.TM. operating system, among others, provides a dynamic link library (DLL) capability with which interface protocol components within shared libraries can be dynamically linked during runtime operation of the computer system. The DLL structure allows a computer system to be dynamically configurable without rebuilding or relinking any other software components.
Because interface protocols define specific data exchanges between two systems, it is important to provide a mechanism for monitoring, logging, and debugging particular interface protocol implementations. Using prior art systems, it is necessary to develop specific interface protocol debugging tools for each different type of interface protocol. In other prior art implementations, expensive interface protocol analyzer tools are used to monitor and debug particular protocol data transactions. In general, prior art systems have failed to provide a generic framework for interface protocol monitoring and debugging without significantly degrading system performance.
Thus, a general-purpose interface protocol monitoring and debugging system is required.